Aston Martin boss Mike Krack admits that Formula 1 is no longer mainly about chasing downforce but also about finding a stable platform that teams can build upon.
McLaren has made a point this year of bringing relatively few major upgrades and instead focussing on honing the car it has, with considerable success.
Like others Aston Martin has brought aero upgrades which haven’t always work as planned, obliging the team to swap back and forth between iterations.
“There are a couple of problems with the current car, and I think, up and down the pit lane, it will be the same,” said Krack.
“We try to improve the load, the downforce, and the balance. And then in which order, I think that it also depends on what kind of corners you’re having, what kind of circuits you’re having.
“You have circuits like [Singapore] or like Baku, where you have just short corners. Or like Monza with the last corner that was never stopping, where it’s more critical. But we have to improve both, because both are not good enough.”
Asked if the focus was aero or mechanical he said: “I think it’s both. And it’s also always difficult to completely discern them, but we need to make a good step in both, because the drivers are not happy either when the speed is very low.”
Krack acknowledged that the improved form of both McLaren and Mercedes in 2024 has provided food for thought.
“We were on level with Mercedes at the beginning of the season for the first races. So it is possible to make substantial steps with these regulations if you get the car stable, and behaving the way the drivers want it.
“So it is not this pure race for downforce that you used to have in the past, where it’s really difficult to close. Here it is more about getting the stability, getting the balance and the load, obviously, as well.”
Regarding McLaren’s development strategy he said: “We’re looking at this a lot. If you compare the pace, and you see when have they made a step, and you try to correlate it with some upgrades – that are declared, because you never have the full picture.
“But there are some correlations where you can see, okay, this is what has been changed, and what has it potentially done?
“And then you see, for example, the Zandvoort upgrade, it’s a bit here, a bit there, a bit there. So you see how fine and complex these cars have become. And I think it will be foolish not to look at it.”
Krack confirmed that with the Austin upgrades in production the R&D focus has switched to the AMR25.
“It’s already a couple of weeks where the focus has to be on the future,” he said. “Now, obviously, with the delay that parts take, to produce the parts that will come, they have been signed off already quite a while ago. So at the moment, it’s flat out on ‘25.”
Krack insists that there have been positive developments at the Silverstone team.
“You have a lot of metrics that you are using to check you know where you are, if you are progressing, if you’re not,” he noted.
“As an example, the pit stops. When we started in ’22 to set up these metrics, and we set ourselves targets, and we see where we are, you clearly see progress in terms of consistency, in terms of speed.
“We have fantastic race starts. There are a lot of positives there. With a lot of processes, we are making good progress. But I have to say, on the development side, two years in a row now we have rather progressed rearwards then forwards. Then that is the reality.”
